She came, she barbecued: TV celebrity competes at Bowie Festival

Published 12:05 am Sunday, September 29, 2013

JUSTIN SELLERS | THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT — Danielle “Diva Q” Dimovski, star of the Travel Channel show “BBQ Crawl,” poses with her trophy Saturday afternoon at the annual Jim Bowie Festival at the Riverview RV Park in Vidalia. Dimovski and her team placed fourth in the chicken category of the BBQ cook off.

JUSTIN SELLERS | THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT — Danielle “Diva Q” Dimovski, star of the Travel Channel show “BBQ Crawl,” poses with her trophy Saturday afternoon at the annual Jim Bowie Festival at the Riverview RV Park in Vidalia. Dimovski and her team placed fourth in the chicken category of the BBQ cook off.

Vidalia — Once a year, Concordia Parish residents gather, putting aside political and religious differences to celebrate as a community something nearly everyone can agree on — barbecue.

The annual Jim Bowie Festival and Barbecue Throwdown was Saturday, and 39 local and out-of-town teams competed in the Kansas City Barbecue Society’s sanctioned championship for the state of Louisiana.

In the end, Holy Mohler Barbecue of Pineville walked away as overall winner, eligible to go on to the national championship.

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This year’s events were recorded in part by a camera crew with the show BBQ Crawl, hosted by Pittmaster Diva Q — otherwise known as Danielle Dimovski.

BBQ Crawl plays on the Travel Channel, and Dimovski said the episode filmed in Vidalia will air at sometime in the spring or summer of 2014.

After competing in the barbecue Throwdown, Dimovski said her team “kind of bombed” its brisket — their meat supplier had a fire earlier this week and they had to buy a cut at a local big box store — but ultimately walked away with fourth place in the chicken category.

“The contest is anybody’s game on any day,” she said.

“But what has struck me is that I have never met so many friendly people in my life — we had so many people drop off food, check to see that we were OK, that we had everything we need.

“We came here because I think every barbecue show skips Louisiana, and I think that’s a shame.”

Other winners in the barbecue throwdown include, in the chicken category:

-First place, Daddy Mac’s of Woodville

-Second place, Bayou Boogie Barbecue of Hammond

-Third place, Smoke Dawg Barbecue of Flora

Winners in the ribs category included:

-First place, Holy Mohler

-Second place, Lil Earl’s Butt Naked Barbecue of Longview, Texas

-Third place, Two Old Men and a Grill of Bessemer City, N.C.

Winners in the Pork category included:

-First place, Cuz’s Custom Cooking of Kozciusko

-Second place, Pig Quisine Competition Barbecue Cooking Team of Tupelo

-Third place, Delta Piggy Bankers of Vidalia

Winners in the brisket category included:

-First place, Cajun Blaze of Gonzales

-Second place, The Bluebloods of Hammond

-Third place, Holy Mohler

Other winners in the overall category included:

-Second place, The Bluebloods

-Third place, Bayou Boogie

-Fourth place, Cuz’s Custom Cooking

-Fifth place, Cajun Blaze